Thursday, October 16, 2008

Fender Bender

As many of you know, I'm the proud owner of a white '97 Toyota RAV 4. I love my RAV. I love it so much. I know it's no longer a prize vehicle - it's over 10 years old, and it's not quite 'in' anymore.

But I love it anyways.

This past summer, after driving it for a few years with exhaust problems, I had to actually get some major repairs done when it decided to roar like an airplane on take-off. It was so loud that I couldn't even hear my music inside the vehicle anymore. It was a little scary.

So I forked out a big chunk of change to get some repairs done, and for the past few weeks, it's been riding quiet and smooth and just peachy. I had wiped my brow in relief - it would appear the ol' RAV was going to last me another while!

Then, last night, after attending my first craft night of the year at the Family Centre, I was backing out of the parking lot and waving good-bye to my friends when suddenly, with the loud, horrifying sound of crunching metal, my heart jumped into my throat. I had backed right into a parked car across the street!!

Of course, my first fear was for my poor RAV. Already having gone through so much lately, I couldn't believe I was putting her through more. My Lady Linda. My Barbie Mobile. Smushed right up against the front left-hand side that little red Devil Car.

OK, so I was actually a little more afraid of the lady who was still inside the Family Centre, whom I had to go face and confess to her that I had just backed into her car. I was afraid we'd have to call the police, I was mad at myself for being so stupid...I was a bit of a mess for a little while!

Fortunately, she was very cool about it. She didn't get mad - in fact, she hugged me and told me it was okay. And my wonderful friends hung out with me until we got our info exchanged and everything was resolved. I still felt like a complete bonehead, but overall, it wasn't that bad.

But I bet you're waiting to hear what happened to my Lady Linda, right?

Good news: She only has a scuff mark on the back bumper area that I think will wash off without any problem. No ding, no crunched metal, nothing.

*sigh* Thank goodness!! She's OK!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Jill, I know how you feel. I rear-ended someone before... it was totally minor and there was no mark on either of our cars... slippery roads and too much of a defensive driving maneuver and there we were.

You will always be even more vigilant now!

Glad to hear the RAV is okay!

Anonymous said...

The way you were talking I thought you had wrote it off! You had mentioned about spending all that money on the exhaust and that you thought it was going to last you a long time. We get lots of people calling saying they had run into someone else but there's no damage to their vehicle, just the third party. If there's not much damage to her car she may just fix it heself and not bother with the insurance. That's usually the way it goes anyway.

Anonymous said...

well Jill, honestly when i saw it and i saw the little red devil car shake and move, and you drove off, I thought you didnt even notice and were going to boot her and then come back...lol
but you noticed right away...she was very cool about it and i mean she says she's never had something like this happen before but her mirror was duct tape...anyways, everything worked out fine. It gave us some excitement and really, don't feel too bad, I did hit a pedestrian a couple of weeks ago that could have been A LOT worse but I pulled through that too....Lady Linda is still going - Woo Hoo!!

Stacy

Jill said...

Well, it was hard to miss, all I heard was crunching metal, I wasn't sure what I had hit but I was pretty sure it was a car! So so dumb. :(